from
the DataCenter's Economic Justice
Program, Spring 2003
Day Laborers Negotiate with Home Depot
Day laborers are workers of all races, often
homeless or living in substandard housing, who seek employment
on street corners or other public locations throughout the
United States. They typically work for any one employer
on a very short-term basis, receiving payment for their
labor at the end of each day worked, with no guarantees
of future employment. Predominantly poor, Latin American
immigrants displaced by the global economy, day laborers
represent the low-wage, no-security extreme of the temporary
workforce.
As many as 700,000 day laborers worked for
Labor Ready, the national temporary staffing agency, in
2001. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that 260,000
day laborers waited on street corners for employment that
same year. 20,000 day laborers are estimated to work in
the Los Angeles area alone.
Day laborers, or jornaleros, who have
limited education skills, significant language barriers
and often lack documentation are especially vulnerable to
workplace abuses, including hazardous working conditions
and unpaid wages, according to a recent GAO
report requested by Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL).
Community based organizations are organizing
day laborers across the United States, and have come together
to form the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON),
creating opportunities for collaboration, strategy and planning
to strengthen the capacity, leadership and influence of
each local organization. Priority issues for the network
include legalization for undocumented immigrants, creating
and strengthening job centers, education and organizing,
civil and labor rights protection for day laborers, integrating
women into the day laborer movement and developing women
leaders.
DataCenter research is assisting NDLON's efforts
to negotiate for Home Depot to adopt a uniform policy toward
day laborers. Home Depot's phenomenal growth and "do-it-yourself"
approach makes its stores a logical magnet for day laborers
to find short-term employment opportunities in home improvement
and maintenance, construction and landscaping. The uniform
internal policy would ensure that day laborers are treated
the same at any Home Depot store. Our research explored
common ground between The Home Depot's business plans and
NDLON's mission to organize informal day laborer gatherings.
Additionally, DataCenter provides network
organizers a steady flow of news and events appearing in
the U.S. press about jornaleros, hiring halls, and
worker centers in metropolitan areas across the country.
This day labor monitoring service enables organizers and
workers to track and analyse the challenges and successes
of this most recent chapter in the movement for worker justice
and humane immigrant rights.
For further information see Red
Nacional de Jornaleros/National Day Laborer Network.
